I was getting into swimming back in 2022, and remembered there was a pool near me on Holzmarkstrasse. Unfortunately, it turns out the pool was closed in 2018. Now in 2025 it's been closed for 7 years, you can see it here as the small building in the middle with graffiti on it.

So I was quite happy this week when I stumbled across this blog by Berliner Bäder. The pool site, which is currently derelict, is being redeveloped into a new pool with double the capacity, along with retail space, office space, around ~375 apartments and an open roof area.

This plot is Holzmarktstrasse 51, and is quite centrally located, near Jannowitzbrucke Sbahn, and about 1.5km from Alexanderplatz. If you enter that address into BORIS (BOdenRichtwertInformationsSystem, rough traslation is "Land Value Information System") you can see this land is worth 2400 Euro/m², though is right on the border with land worth 11000 Euro/m² (reflecting its proximity to the river and excellent transport connections). The BORIS land values are by zone rather than by plot (and zones can cover several blocks and hundreds of meters), so I guess the 2400 Euro/m² for this plot is probably an underestimation.

The stark difference in land values between nearby plots (2400 vs 11000 €/m²) highlights how location-based value can vary dramatically even within a small area. This is exactly the kind of unearned value that Land Value Tax (LVT) is designed to capture - value created by the community, nature, and city infrastructure rather than by the landowner themselves.

Interestingly, this valuable plot is publicly owned - it belonged to Berliner Bäder-Betriebe who are selling it to Berlinovo, another public entity. While public entities might be exempt from traditional property taxes, the principles of Land Value Tax still apply here: valuable urban land should be used efficiently regardless of ownership. The opportunity cost of leaving prime location land underutilized for 7+ years is the same whether the owner is public or private

It's encouraging to see this being redeveloped for mixed use. This site's evolution - from public pool, to a planned mixed-use development with housing and doubled pool capacity - illustrates a key Georgist principle about urban development. As cities grow, valuable urban land should naturally transition to more intensive uses that serve more people. This project shows that principle in action: where once there was just a pool, soon there will be both a larger pool and 375 apartments, plus office and retail space. The added roof garden even makes use of that vertical dimension for more green space. This kind of mixed-use development with high density is exactly what we'd expect to see more of under an LVT system, where holding valuable land vacant or underutilized becomes much more expensive.

According to the Berliner Bäeder post, construction is due to start in 2026. That's 8 years after the pool has been closed, which seems like a long time. Digging deeper, I found this article from Berliner Woche from 2021 about the developent. It says "Läuft alles wie geplant, könnte das Schwimmbad 2025 in Betrieb gehen" (rough translation: "if everything goes to plan, the pool should be operational by 2025"), so it looks like everything did not go to plan.

The timeline of this project raises important questions about Berlin's development process. Even with public ownership and clear public benefit (both housing and a swimming pool), it's taken over 7 years and counting to redevelop this valuable central plot. While LVT usually focuses on private landowners, this case shows how the principles of efficient land use apply equally to public land. That delay in developing 375 needed apartments and expanded public facilities suggests that we need better systems - both tax-based and administrative - to encourage optimal use of all urban land. The final mixed-use design, combining public infrastructure with housing and commercial space, shows what's possible - we just need to find ways to make it happen faster and more often.